


a soft place to land

by thisisthefamilybusiness



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Adopted Children, Adoption, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Happy Ending, Korean Daniel, M/M, Married Couple, Married Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, joshua is ooc because he enjoys himself sometimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-29 01:45:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15062360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisthefamilybusiness/pseuds/thisisthefamilybusiness
Summary: Daniel feels like he’s doing something terrible as he sets the photograph into the frame, heart beating too fast. But he can’t help that he looks at the photograph and knows somewhere deep inside his heart that those are supposed to be his children, and he knows that Joshua must feel something too. Otherwise Joshua would have simply said no.Older child adoptions were always going to be hard, but if anyone was going to be qualified, it was them. It wasn’t what they had been planning for, no. They’d need a new house, and they’d need to set aside additional money for care that the special needs adoption grant wouldn’t cover, but--But Daniel can’t stop looking at their adoption listing photo and knowing that those are his children, no matter what separates them now.





	a soft place to land

**Author's Note:**

  * For [banjohs](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=banjohs).



> i stole this idea from [banjohs](banjohs.tumblr.com)
> 
> in my head even though i am fully aware that i am writing a contemporary au in my head both joshua and daniel are still wearing those exact same outfits

“We live in a two bedroom apartment.” Joshua folds his arms over his chest and leans back in his chair, expression stony. 

“Then we’ll move,” Daniel says simply, still tracing his fingers over the picture mindlessly. “It’s not like we don’t have the money.” It’s true, and they both know it; they could both quit right now and still live comfortably off of the settlement Joshua was still being paid from Sallow’s estate. 

Joshua is silent for a painfully long minute as he looks down at the papers spread out over their kitchen table. Daniel feels like he’s choking as he tries to read Joshua’s expression, a lump forming in his throat.

“I need time to think about it,” Joshua finally says. Daniel nods as quickly as he can, relaxing his body forcibly and trying to smile. It’s not a  _ no _ , and that’s what matters.

* * *

Daniel feels like he’s doing something terrible as he sets the photograph into the frame, heart beating too fast. But he can’t help that he looks at the photograph and knows somewhere deep inside his heart that those are supposed to be his children, and he knows that Joshua must feel something too. Otherwise Joshua would have simply said no. 

Older child adoptions were always going to be hard, but if anyone was going to be qualified, it was them. It wasn’t what they had been planning for, no. They’d need a new house, and they’d need to set aside additional money for care that the special needs adoption grant wouldn’t cover, but-- 

But Daniel can’t stop looking at their adoption listing photo and knowing that those are his children, no matter what separates them now. 

* * *

Joshua has the framed photo in his hands when Daniel comes home, and immediately Daniel is flooded with guilt. He shouldn’t have done it. Daniel swallows hard and starts formulating an apology. “I’m--” he starts nervously.

“I don’t know a word of Korean,” Joshua interrupts. “The agency social worker said our application is improved if we both speak Korean at least at a basic level.” 

Daniel’s heart skips a beat. “You called the agency?”

“Once the language barrier is a little easier, we are the ideal candidates. Obviously we are... Uniquely familiar with the trauma and treatment of severe burns, even years after the initial incident. It would be a good match.” There’s a subtle uptick to the corners of Joshua’s mouth that Daniel knows is a smile. 

Daniel drops his work bag and gently wraps Joshua in a hug. Tears blur his vision. He was going to be a dad. They were going to be parents. 

* * *

Adoption is a painfully slow process. They knew it when they began looking, but the waiting is a thousand times harder now that the end is in sight. 

The house keeps them both busy for a while. It’s probably too big, realistically speaking, but Daniel keeps remembering how Cora asked in the video the adoption agency made for a nice house with a room for each of her siblings and a big backyard, and Joshua silently agrees. All the work they have to do to get the house in shape is a good distraction. 

It’s also what inspires the scrapbook.

It’s another one of Daniel’s little projects, something he’d read about in a forum for parents adopting older children overseas. It’s a tool to help prepare them for the transition and introduce them to their new home, in part, and Daniel hopes it also conveys even ten percent of how much Daniel and Joshua already loved them unconditionally. He painstakingly makes two copies of every page he’s planning on, one to be completed in English and the other in Korean, a task that involves more calling of Daniel’s mother than he’d like (Eun is more than happy to help, of course, but Daniel wants to be as fluent as possible on his own). 

The first few pages will be all about them--their wedding, jobs, and lives. It takes a lot of digging through every photo album Daniel has to find photos of Joshua both bandaged up and bare-faced, but Daniel knows that’ll be important to Dominic. There was no shame to be found in Joshua’s scars, just like there would be none in Dominic’s. 

Daniel’s translating the paragraph about their wedding into Korean when Joshua finds him at work in the office. “What’s all this?” Joshua asks, bemused, as he thumbs through the page templates.

“A scrapbook, to show them their new home.” Daniel smiles and flashes the nearly-complete page at Joshua. 

“Ah.” Joshua sinks into the chair next to the desk and pulls the pile of completed pages towards himself, studying each one.

Daniel grins and picks his pen back up.  _ We got married six years ago... _

* * *

_ Your Home. For Cora Ji-Su Graham, Dominic Sungmin Graham, and Eloisa Yuna Graham. From Daniel Min-Jun Graham and Joshua-- _

“Your middle name is Brigham?” Daniel laughs. 

Joshua grimaces and shrugs. “I came from a long line of very good Mormon families.”

_ From Daniel Min-Jun Graham and Joshua Brigham Graham.  _

“That’s going to sound terrible in Korean, just so you know.” Daniel finishes the line with a little heart. 

Tomorrow he’ll drop the album off at the post office, and in a handful of days it’ll be in the hands of their children.  _ Their children.  _

* * *

The trip to Korea is exhilarating. 

They spend most of the long plane ride holding hands and Daniel takes more dramamine than is probably recommended. Joshua manages to navigate the airport and order a taxi entirely in Korean without asking Daniel for help at all, and they spend the ride to the hotel in companionable silence. 

The first day in Seoul is agonizing because Daniel  _ knows _ that their children are only a few miles away, but the agency scheduled first visits on a strict calendar. Instead of worrying about it, they do their best to rest off the jet lag, curled around each other in the hotel bed. 

Daniel’s heart is pounding on the taxi ride to the care center. He twines his fingers with Joshua’s and nestles his head in the crook of Joshua’s neck with a shaky sigh. The finish line is so close that he can almost taste it. 

The care center is a clean, almost school-like atmosphere. The agency social worker that greets them explains the basic terms of their first meeting, but Daniel can’t focus when she’s leading them down the hallway and into what is clearly a playroom, shelves stacked with games and toys of all sorts. 

And there they are, watching a cartoon on a TV in the corner of the room, Dominic and Cora huddled together with little one year old Eloisa on Cora’s lap. Daniel’s breath catches in his throat, and he can feel Joshua freeze in place momentarily, too.

“Daniel and Joshua are here to see you,” the social worker announces in English, and immediately the children are rising to their feet, Cora holding Eloisa on her hip. They look so hesitant, afraid, and Daniel just sinks to his knees and pulls all three into his arms. It only takes a second for Joshua to join them, but the minute he does Daniel feels it all slide into place in his heart and mind. 

They’re a family now. A real, genuine family, with no more distance between them. 

**Author's Note:**

> [talk to me on tumblr](officialclaricestarling.tumblr.com)


End file.
